Friend or Foe
by Lennrii
Summary: The Voltron team frees a planet from a tyrannical rule, and in the chaos that ensues, Pidge makes a strange new acquaintance, but can he be trusted? And what happens when Pidge goes against the better judgement of her team ?
1. Chapter 1

**Hello! This is my first story here so I hope you enjoy! I'm hoping to update this often but that all defends on how much you all enjoy it . Anyways, thank you for reading !**

 **I do not own anything in this story other than the idea and an OC or two, all other rights go to Dreamworks.**

 **~ LennRii**

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The Paladin's were up to their necks in trouble and busier than bees. Just a few days earlier, they had liberated a planet from its long-time dictatorship. Though this was, in the long run, a good thing that ended the suffering of millions, it currently was anything but that. The crime rate had nearly doubled since the initial liberation and riots were seen popping up left and right, led by the remaining supporters of the old government. They were supposed to be free and yet the people were still living in fear for their lives, maybe even more so than they had been before. Pidge sighed and shook her head as she walked through the crowded market on the east side of the capitol. In order to help keep the peace and protect the citizens, the Paladins had each been assigned to different sectors of the capitol to patrol and hers was the market, which she had mixed feelings about. The market was naturally a rather violent place without all of the riots, so she never really got any break from separating fights that ranged from out of hand bartering to full fledged riots. At the same time though, she also ran into some of nicest people as well as some of the most interesting.

"Speaking of interesting…" She hummed as she rounded a corner, her eyes falling upon a strange cloaked figure meandering between the market stalls. Something about the figure seemed off so she quickened her pace in hopes to catch up to whoever it was, but her small legs could only carry her so far so fast, and she quickly lost sight of them. "Okay never mind I guess." She huffed. "If they end up being a problem, I'll just deal with it later." With that she simply continued on her way, making her rounds around and through the market. It wasn't until a while later that some distant shouts drifted to her ears and caught her attention. The Green Paladin narrowed her eyes and rushed to the source, suddenly finding herself entangled in a massive riot. Stalls were being flipped, broken, and burned. People were running away screaming as other protesters attempted to cause them harm. There was too many of them. Pidge may have been a Paladin of Voltron, but she didn't have her lion or her team, so right now she was pretty much just a fifteen-year-old girl in a flashy suit among a bunch of angry aliens. Yes, she could call in for backup, but she was a strong, independent young lady that could handle herself, plus she didn't want to bother the others so, she decided to try her luck and see what she could do on her own. That was a mistake. The first minute or so went well, relatively, but it all went downhill from there, until someone else joined the fray. At first she simply assumed that it was Keith, seeing as he tended to check on her at about this time, but when she turned around, she found that it was instead the cloaked figure from earlier.

"Wow, they're good at this." She commented as she dragged one of the protesters down to the ground with her bayard. After some time, the two of them managed to quell the riot and bring peace back to the market.

"Hey, uh, thanks." Pidge nodded, making her way to her unidentified partner. "I'm Pidge." she smiled and held out her hand. The stranger raised their head slightly and looked at her, giving her a good look at their face. He had pale purple skin with a long dark marking on each cheek, gray-blue hair that swept across his forehead, and piercing blue eyes.

"Riko." He smiled back as he shook her hand. "You seemed like you needed the help plus, I couldn't just stand to the side and watch a child get turned into a juice."

Pidge rolled her eyes, but smiled nonetheless. "Oh haha, very funny. But really, thank you."

"Anytime." Riko let out a soft laugh. "Listen, I'd like to stay and chat, but my buddy is expecting me so I gotta run. Maybe we'll run into each other tomorrow though. Anyways, see you." He waved and made his way down the road and out of sight. A smile slipped onto Pidge's face as she continued on with her patrol. At least there were some good people still out there.

Finally, the time came for her to return back to the Castle for the night, which she did with great pleasure. She made her way into one of the main rooms, where Keith was already lounging on the couch.

"Hey, Keith," She questioned, "where were you today? You didn't show up like normally."

"Yeah, sorry about that… We had a bit of an issue down at the pier." He apologized as he sat up, clearly feeling guilty. "More importantly, what happened to you? You're all beat up!" Pidge groaned as she pushed his concerned hands from her face and took a seat.

"There was a huge riot in the lower market today, but I'm fine. Don't worry."

"How many were there?" Concern was still clearly evident in his expression and he most definitely did not believe that she was as fine as she claimed.

"I dunno, a lot?" She frowned and adjusted her glasses. "You honestly expected me to count them? You expect too much."

"No, I just meant like an estimate-"

Pidge chuckled. "No, I know. Like I said, it was huge. They were literally tearing stuff apart and burning down stalls. It was only thanks to some help that I was able to quell it." Keith's brow creased and he leant forward on his arms, his chin resting in his hands.

"Help?"

"Yeah, it was some hooded guy… Oh what was his name? That's right, Riko, it was Riko. He, uh, he kinda just jumped in and helped me." Pidge shrugged casually.

"Well, as long as your safe..." Keith sighed, falling back against the couch. It was then that Lance burst into the room, groaning a whining until he simply collapsed to the floor. "What's wrong with you now, Lance?" Keith raised an eyebrow, already irked by the Blue Paladin's actions.

"I hate this!" Came his muffled moan from the floor. "I can't keep this up any longer!"

"Oh please." Pidge shook her head. "What happened this time?"

"I had to chase down twelve of those weird pet things today! That makes ninety two already this week! I've probably run more these few days than I have my entire life!" Lance moaned once again and buried his face in the floor.

"It's good for you, and at least you didn't have to deal with some stupid shipping mix up." Keith said with an eye roll.

"Yeah, or a huge riot." Pidge added with a nod.

"You had a huge riot?" Lance was sitting up now and gazing nervously at the youngest.

"Yeah, it's pretty normal for the market honestly."

"Not on that scale." Keith glared.

Pidge shrugged, "Well, I mean-"

"Little feuds and wanna-be riots are different from the real deal, Pidge."

"So, wait, you dealt with an actual riot? The real deal?" Lance asked with raised eyebrows.

"Yes." Both Keith and Pidge answered.

"I don't see the big deal here." Pidge frowned. Both boys stared at her for a moment.

"Well, usually only Shiro handles the big ones…" Lance frowned.

"And you should have called for help like you're supposed to." Keith added.

"Seriously guys, it's fine! And like I said Keith, I had help!"

"Yeah, from a stranger! How did you know he'd show up? You didn't!"

"Since when was this a 'bash Pidge' session?" Pidge fumed. "I'm fine! It's fine! The riot is handled!"

"Fine, just don't do that again." Keith huffed and Lance nodded in agreement with him.

"What's going on in here?" Came Shiro's voice as he and Hunk strode into the room, both clearly in a far better mood than the other occupants.

"Nothing." Came the reply of Pidge and Lance.

"Pidge had a riot today and didn't call for help." Keith informed matter of factly. Shiro's eyes narrowed as his gaze fell on the youngest.

"Why not? You've always done it in the past." Pidge simply rolled her eyes and shrugged.

"Dunno, I just didn't. Can we drop it now?" And just like that, a heavy silence fell and hung in the air.


	2. Chapter 2

**Hello again! First off, I'd like to apologize for such a long wait! I really struggled with this chapter in all honesty... But hey, it's here! I know that it's a bit short, but there's a reasonable explanation for that. I'm already working on the next chapter and it should be up much sooner than this one was!**

 **Once again, I own nothing here except Riko and the idea/writing (and a few other minor characters) everything else belongs to Dreamworks Studios !**

 **~LennRii**

* * *

"Another day, another patrol…" Pidge muttered, once again finding herself stuck in the dusty, cramped streets of the market once again. "Good morning Miss Arkurem." She greeted with a smile as she walked past one of the stalls. Miss Arkurem looked up,smiled back, and waved, her pink eyes shining with pleasure, before returning to what she had been doing before, which happened to be arranging some plant life in pots and vases. Pidge sighed as she continued along her patrol route through the marketplace. It wasn't as busy as usual today due to the fact that there was a large sporting event down at the pier had the attention of most of the population. She couldn't help but chuckle at the thought of Keith trying to deal with such an event, that place was going to be a madhouse. Now he'll get a taste of what she has to deal with every day. Of course, that didn't mean that the market was free of crowds or problems, but it was definitely less work than usual, which meant that her mind would frequently begin to wander on the job, and it always went to Riko and the incident from the previous day.

"Why am I still thinking about him? He's just some stranger that helped me out one time, it's not like… It's not like we're friends." She bit her lip and cast her gaze up to the fiery colored sky above. Black, whispy tendrils that reminded her mildly of clouds back on Earth were floating on the horizon, where two moons were slowly lowering out of sight. Little glowing insects traveled through the air in clusters, forming dozens of beautiful shapes and patterns that glowed with a faint turquoise hue in the morning sun.

Pidge found herself absently reaching a hand up towards the expanse above before returning her attention back to her work with a wistful sigh. "It'd be nice to be friends with him though. I don't really have many of those anymore, especially with how protective the guys can get." She huffed and crossed her arms in a momentary pout before returning back to the job at hand.

Most of the day went by without much trouble or event and once again, Keith didn't stop by to check in, though it made sense with the event going on at the pier, so she didn't hold it against him. After looping her route on repeat with not disruption for most of the day, someone finally stopped her.

"Excuse me, Green Paladin?" A soft voice asked. Pidge stopped and looked down to see a small, fish-like, blue-skinned woman tugging at her leg. She was no taller than Pidge's waist, even with the brightly colored fin atop her head. "Could you please help me?" Pidge had to fight to hide the smile that threatened to appear on her lips, there was finally something to do.

"Of course! What do you need?" Within seconds of the last word leaving her mouth, the fish woman proceeded to grab her arm and lead her through the marketplace to a little shop on the corner, one of the few indoor shops in the area. The woman then pulled her into the shop and over to one of the display shelves, where she stopped and pointed one of her scaly, webbed fingers towards the top. Pidge's eyes followed her finger and landed upon a packaged box at the very top.

"Would you be willing to crab that for me? As you can tell, I'm not all that tall…"

"Of course, don't worry." Pidge assured her, the she was internally groaning and cursing her own shortness. There was no way she'd be able to reach that box without a fair amount of difficulty. Humming in thought, she took a step back to assess the situation. While she could use her bayard and get the box with ease, she didn't want to risk damaging the contents, so that was out of the question. Climbing the shelf maybe? No, there's no way it could support her weight, it was barely supporting its own contents as it was. That's when it hit her: she'd have to jump. Pidge huffed in irritation, but proceeded towards the shelf and began jumping. She wasn't sure how long it was, but she knew it wasn't long after that she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Don't worry miss, I assure you that I-" She started, but her words fell short when she realized that it wasn't the fish woman holding her, but instead a familiar purple-skinned man in a brown cloak. "Riko."

"Hey." He smiled coolly, his crystal eyes shining. "Want help with that?" He asked, gesturing towards the box. Before Pidge could respond, he was already handing the box to the woman. "There you go." He nodded to her before making his way back out the door. Pidge furrowed her brows and waved to the woman before following him out.

"Hey!" She called out after him. "What was that all about?"

Riko stopped, allowing her to catch up with him. "What do you mean? I was helping you."

"Well yeah, I know that," Pidge sighed with a shake of her head, "I mean why? And what were you doing there? I didn't see you there earlier."

"I just like to help." Riko shrugged, a small grin on his face. "And I mean, you make it pretty easy to help you. As to what I was doing there, I just happened to be passing by when I saw you hopping like a merko bean in the silken rain."

"A merko… What?" Pidge raised an eyebrow at the man. He couldn't help but laugh at her confused expression.

"It's a common phrase back where I'm from. It basically just means jumping a lot."

"I-I see…" She responded, casting her gaze away to hide her embarrassment. She always understood that type of stuff, she was always the smart one, but for once, someone proved her wrong. It was a bit strange, especially since he wasn't mocking her or rubbing in her face like she was used to when she was, on a rare occasion, wrong.

"Hey, don't be embarrassed," Riko placed a comforting hand on her head, "most people don't understand it."

"Yeah, whatever." Pidge huffed, brushing his hand off. "I wasn't embarrassed, just… just tired, that's all. I am curious though, where are you from? I've never heard that expression before, and believe me, I've heard a lot of things."

Riko laughed. "Well considering your line of work, I'm sure you have." The two had begun to walk once again, though the route was different from Pidge's normal routine route.

"So, you gonna answer my question?"

"Hm, maybe." Riko teased with a smirk.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Pidge questioned with a slight pout.

"Y'know Green Paladin, you sure like to ask a lot of questions, but I don't know if I've heard you answer any yet." He continued to smirk, waving a finger in the air in a 'no-no' gesture.

"Okay, fine." She shot back, stopping and taking a seat atop an old barrel near the fountain at the center of the market. "What do you wanna know?" Riko folded his arms and sat on top of a nearby crate, a small grin dancing on his lips.

"Well, how about we start with the other Paladins. What're they like?"

"Uhm," Pidge paused for a moment, trying to think of what to say, "well they're all pretty different and unique in their own way. There's Hunk, the Yellow Paladin, he's pretty much the sweetheart of the group, y'know always concerned about everyone and everything. Oh, and he likes to cook! Let's see… There's the Blue Paladin, Lance, and, well, don't get me started on him. He's a huge flirt, and I mean huge. Put any remotely attractive girl in front of him and he's gone. Oh, and Keith, the Red Paladin! No offense to him, but he's a bit of a grump, I was actually convinced that he was emo for a while. He and Lance are pretty much always fighting with each other. And then there's our leader, the Black Paladin-"

"Pidge!" Her explanation was cut short by a very familiar voice calling her name.

"Shiro…" She sighed as her eyes landed on the Black Paladin, who was weaving his way towards where the two. "What're you doing here? Shouldn't you be monitoring the capitol?" She asked once he had reached them.

"Yeah, but I got a little off time thanks to the event so I thought I'd check on you, especially after what happened yesterday."

Pidge's brow furrowed. "I thought we dropped that."

"We did, don't worry." Shiro nodded reassuringly. He was about to say something else, when his eyes finally fell upon her companion and quickly narrowed. "Who's this?"

"This is Riko, the one from yesterday, the one that helped me with the riot." Pidge informed him with a shy smile.

"I see." Shiro frowned, his eyes still narrowed. Something was familiar about this hooded man, but he just couldn't place what it was. "Well, I better go, I'll see you tonight Pidge. Be careful."

"You too." She waved, watching as her leader left the market.

"I don't think he likes me…" Riko commented after a moment.

"No, I'm sure that he's just in a bad mood is all." Pidge hummed, though even she wasn't so sure.

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 **So... What'd you think? I know it's a bit of a cliffhanger, sorry bout that! Don't worry though, as I said, I'm already working on the next chapter so you won't have to wait all that long!**

 **Anyways, thank you for reading!**

 **Until the next chapter~**


	3. Chapter 3

**First off, I'd like to apologize for the long wait! I've had a lot of things on my mind lately and so writing hasn't really been a priority... Well, uhm, anyways, here's the new chapter and I do hope you enjoy!**

 **As always, I own nothing here but Riko and the idea/writing**

 **~LennRii**

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"Anyone know where Pidge is?" Hunk wondered as four of the five Paladin's sat inside the Castle. The day was over and everyone had returned to the Castle at 18:00 just as they had done every day, all except one, and now it was almost 19:00.

"Yeah, she's late." Lance grumbled from where he was sprawled out on the couch.

"I think we noticed, Lance." Keith growled back, not appreciating the Blue Paladin's attitude. "It's just not like her to be late, she's normally here right on the minute."

"Yeah, well she isn't. If she doesn't get here soon, I swear-"

"We'll go look for her." Shiro stated, finishing Lance's sentence for him. "Though, hopefully, it won't come to that…" Silence fell over the four for a moment, an uneasy tension hanging in the air. There was clearly an elephant in the room, but no one wanted to be the one to bring it up.

"Hey Shiro," Hunk suddenly spoke, a slight uneasiness to his voice, "you've seemed a bit, how should I say this? A bit…"

"Off."

"Weird."

Hunk nodded at the words provided by the other two Paladins. "Yeah, that. What's going on?"

"It's nothing to be worried about." Shiro replied, running a hand through his hair. "I'm just trying to figure something out."

"Which is…?" Keith raised an eyebrow at their leader. Shiro was being oddly vague, which he only did when there was something really wrong. Maybe it had something to do with Pidge?

Shiro sighed and sat down, knowing that he couldn't escape from their inquiries. "I saw someone today and he seemed familiar, like I knew him from somewhere, or like he knew me."

"Would you look at that!" Lance exclaimed, moving to sit up. "Shiro met an old friend!"

"I highly doubt that." Their leader responded, his eyes hard and distant. "I've just got a really bad feeling, about all of this."

Hunk frowned. "Why? It was just a one time thing right? If you really had such a bad feeling though, couldn't you have apprehended him or something."

"No," Shiro sighed, slowly shaking his head, "because he was with-"

"Hey guys, sorry I'm late!" Pidge practically yelled as she ran into the room, stumbling to a stop just a few steps from the door. "Things got a bit busy and then I got kind of distracted and… Hey, something wrong?" She bit her lip, noticing the scowls furrowed brows upon the other Paladin's faces.

"Yeah," Keith growled, "you're late. Like almost an hour late."

"Yeah, uh, sorry about that, like I said I-"

"Just don't do it again, Pidge." Shiro cautioned before getting to feet and leaving the room, though the tense air that had entered with him remained in the room.

"Is everything alright?" Pidge asked, glancing between the remaining Paladins in the room with an expression of confusion and worry.

"Yeah, it's fine." Keith reassured her, seeing as even he couldn't quite answer her question since he too was wondering that same thing. "Go hurry and get cleaned up, it's about time for dinner." Pidge nodded and hurried out of the room, the other three following not to far behind.

—

"Back on the job once again." Pidge muttered, shuffling through the marketplace early the next morning. "Man, how much longer are we going to have to keep this up?" She was getting pretty tired of this routine. Shouldn't they be out fighting the Galra, protecting the universe? Pidge frowned and shook her head. No, they were helping people, that's all that mattered. Straightening her posture, the young girl took a deep breath before resuming her rounds, keeping a keen eye out for trouble. As the day went on, trouble began to stir, but nothing she couldn't handle herself. A robbery here, one or two protestors and wanna-be riots there, all small and relatively easy to take down.

After several more dull hours passed by, lunchtime rolled around, and with that came a visitation from Keith.

"Oh wow, you actually showed up today." Pidge commented, a teasing smirk dancing in her face. The older Paladin crossed his arms at this and narrowed his eyes.

"I thought I explained to you why I haven't shown up the past few days."

"Yeah, I know, I was teasing," the younger said with a roll of her eyes, "no need to get your panties in a bunch." Keith scowled at the last bit and clearly wanted to make a snide remark, but resisted, for both her sake and his own. A few moments of silence passed as the two made their way over to one of the street vendors and stood in line for lunch.

"So, uh, how's your day been?"

Pidge glanced at Keith and shrugged. "Normal, nothing I couldn't handle."

"Pidge…"

"No, there were no riots if that's what you're wondering."

"Good." Keith nodded approvingly, but didn't fail to miss the underlying anger and bite in her words. The young man bit his lip, eyes narrowed, and went to speak, but Pidge beat him to it.

"So how's the pier treating you?" She asked with hint of laughter after placing her order and sliding a few coins over to the man behind the stall counter.

"Let's put it this way: I thought Lance was bad." This earned a good chuckle from the younger as she grabbed two wrapped items from the man and proceeded to hand one to Keith, who accepted gratefully. "At least you've got decent food over here…" He muttered as they made their way over to the center of the market.

"Aha, and there it is! The truth!" Pidge shouted as she sat down on the edge of the fountain and began unwrapping her food, Keith doing the same.

"What?" He frowned, confusion etched clearly onto the features of his face.

"The real reason you come here everyday." Pidge smirked, her voice low. "It isn't to check on me, it's just for the food!"

"Oh, as if!" Keith huffed in annoyance, though his amusement was quite obvious. The two friends continued on like this for some time until it was time for them to split ways and return to work.

Though somewhat reluctantly, Pidge resumed her rounds and quickly set back to the task at hand. For the most part, the rest of the day was rather dull and uneventful, just as the morning had been, except this time the biggest cause of excitement came not from a burglary or anything of that sort, but from a feud between to stall owners. So, in other words, nothing new. As such, the day turned to night and just as Pidge was getting ready call it a night, she saw it. She saw him. Across the way, among the hustle and bustle of vendors packing up for the night, stood a hooded figure with a small, beckoning smile.

* * *

 **Oh, now things are going to start getting interesting...**

 **Well I do hope you enjoyed, your support is always much appreciated! I'm finally starting to get a clear view of how to get this story to the ending that I want so hopefully the next chapter won't take too long! While this story is nowhere near done, I'd like to inform you that there will be a sequel, so expect a long journey to the end.**


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